Chapter 25

“We did it!” Charlotte exclaims.

Coming up to the roof of the Cake Culture building was a stroke of inspiration, and now I’m glad I agreed to her idea to grab the fire escape ladder and head up here.

Laid back on a blanket on the roof above her apartment, the night sky glittering above us, she’s stunning. Her red hair is fanned out over my arm, her head cradled on my chest as she curls up next to me.

“You did it,” I correct her, grinning to myself in the dark. Trixie and I certainly helped, but Charlotte was the driving force behind the whole event. She’s already got ideas for the next one. It’ll be smaller, for sure, not a kickoff event like today’s, but still just as impactful for the generations of people who have already committed to coming.

She snuggles in closer, sighing happily. “Thank you, for today and for . . . everything.”

I press a kiss to her forehead, inhaling her scent. “Anything for you.”

I mean it. She’s set my world off its axis. She is why fate brought me here. I’m sure of it. I was put in this place for her. And she, for me.

She says she doesn’t believe in happily ever afters, but I do. I believe enough for the both of us. And something tells me she’s starting to believe too.

“Did you see that?” she whispers, tension shooting through her body.

“What?” I say, moving to get up and defend her if necessary. We’re safe here on the roof. The fire escape ladder is one of those hyper-secure ones that you can’t reach from the ground level. But her alarm puts me on alert.

She pulls me back to her, laughing softly. “Down, boy, I meant the shooting star. No need to go Battle-Bot on me.”

I relax back into the blanket beneath us, rolling her to her back and looming over her, keeping her caged in the frame of my arms. “A shooting star, you say? Did you make a wish?”

She bites her lip, driving me mad before confessing, “Well, I remembered some rather filthy things you said to me earlier. What if I wished for those to come true?”

“Then I’d be happy to make that wish come true.”

I press my lips to hers, not sweetly, not this time, but rough and forceful, all the need we built up from our little touches and looks over the course of today driving me hard. I take her mouth, owning her as we share breaths, promising more. More pleasure, more time, more us.

She writhes beneath me, moaning as she returns the passion in my kiss in equal measure. Moving lower, I kiss along her neck, tasting her salty sweetness, savoring the air of vanilla that permeates her. She turns her head, giving me access and begging for more.

I nip and suck at the satiny skin, whispering in her ear. “Tell me what you want.”

“Everything,” she repeats, her earlier word having a new meaning in the heat of the moment. “Fuck me.”

“As you wish,” I tell her, committed to making her every dream come true.

I trace my hand along her side, following the curve and brushing along the side of her breast. Her back arches, and I shove her shirt up, revealing her lacy bra. “Shit, you’ve had this on all day? These candy-pink nipples barely covered by lace? If I’d known that, I would’ve pushed you into the first deserted alleyway I could find and fucked you right there.”

She grins, like she thinks I’m exaggerating. I’m not.

I nuzzle her cleavage, feeling her softness against the scruff of my cheeks, and reach behind her to unhook her bra. She reaches for the hem of her shirt to pull it off, but I stop her. “Nuh-uh, I told you I was going to fuck you in this T-shirt and I’m going to.” I pull the loosened bra down as she watches, letting her tits rest on the shelf it creates before I trace her pinkness, biting her playfully, just the way she likes.

I unbutton her jeans, and she lifts her hips to help me, kicking her shoes off with a toe. Grabbing her waistband, I pull at her jeans as I lift up, turning them inside-out as they come off, leaving her bottom half-bare, save for her panties. I rip them off too, revealing her slick and needy pussy.

“Fuck, Char.” My voice is a deep rumble against her hip as I tease a finger along her wetness, tracing her lips. “On my hand first,” I tell her, slipping a finger inside her.

She whimpers as I curl my finger, petting the front wall of her pussy. The wet sounds of my pumping finger send electric tingles through my spine as I speed up, holding her down with my free hand until she’s on the edge.

With a final stroke, she spasms, her scream rising in her throat. I swallow her cry in a kiss, and her hips rise, bridging up to my hand. I plunge into her as deeply as I can, stroking her inside as she falls apart for me.

“I’ve got you. Let it go, Charlotte.”

Her honey coats my fingers, thick and sticky. Needing a taste, I kiss my way down even as my finger keeps stroking her. She’s still coming when I flick my tongue over her clit. She bucks, her hands going to my hair.

“I can’t, too much,” she protests, though her hands are pulling me to her, not pushing me away.

“On my hand, on my tongue, and on my cock,” I remind her. “You can go again, I know you can.”

I hold still, letting her have control for a moment. She lifts and lowers her hips, running her clit over my flattened tongue. My tongue dips inside her every chance she gives me, lapping up her sweetness and swallowing her down.

“That’s it . . . use me, fuck my mouth.” She tries to keep going but she’s getting so close already, the edge rising up to meet her. Her movements stutter, losing their rhythm, and I take over.

I suck her clit into my mouth, fluttering my tongue across the hardened nub. Her back bows and then reverses, curving her hips and shoulders together as a guttural grunt, primal in its depths, erupts from her. It’s music to my ears, a buffet for my tongue as she comes again.

I’ve waited for her my entire life, the one I never even knew I was looking for as I escaped to save the world. But she’s here now, with me in this moment, and I need her.

I rip my shirt over my head and unbutton my jeans, shoving them and my boxers down my hips but not able to wait long enough to take them off entirely. Charlotte looks down my body, drinking me in with her eyes. I rub my hand across my chest, over the ridges of my abs, and down to take my throbbing cock in hand. I stroke for her, enjoying the way her eyes widen and her lips open like she wants to suck me.

“You want it?” She bites her lip, nodding. “Where?”

I had a plan, a promise I’d made to her, but the way her tongue peeks out to wet her lips taunts me, teasing me to diverge from the path. She drives me mad with the desire to claim every sweet inch of her, inside and out.

“My mouth,” she whispers, breathless but sure.

She sits up, flipping her knees beneath her and sitting back on her heels. She leans forward, licking my crown, making a slow circle to taste the precum that’s leaking freely for her. My knees spread, dipping into her mouth deeper, and she takes me inch by inch into her mouth and throat.

I weave my fingers into her hair, cupping her head to guide her as I begin to fuck her mouth. She moans, the vibration zinging all the way to my balls, which are already tightening up, ready to come for her. The gluck sound as my cock leaves her throat is sexy and thrilling, and she swallows reflexively. I give her a moment to breathe before sliding back into the wet heaven of her mouth. Her cheeks hollow, her tongue curling to tease my shaft, and suddenly, I’m right on the edge.

I pull back, leaving her mouth gaping open, a line of spit from her lips to my cock. “Not yet, not in your mouth this time.”

She nods and lies back on the blanket, knowing what I want. Her eyes sparkle in the moonlight, full of lust, full of more, speaking to my heart.

But I don’t say the words, not yet. Though I feel them, deeply and acutely, I don’t want to scare her. Not now, when we’ve come so far.

She surprises me when she flips over, giving me her back. At first, I think she’s overwhelmed with the emotion of the moment and hiding once again. But she looks over her shoulder, braid swishing along her freckled skin, and she arches, presenting herself to me.

“You did promise me something naughty.” Her hips sway seductively, reminding me of what I vowed earlier today. I’d been teasing in a way, testing her limits, but now . . .

My God. She’s committing to me fully, trusting me to stay with her, to give her exactly what I promised. And I’m a man of my word.

I fall over her, catching myself on one hand and wrapping her messy braid around my fist to keep her eyes on me, not letting her escape this moment. The moment she is mine, I’ve already been hers.

Dipping my fingers into her wet honey again, I coat them before reaching up to massage her asshole, watching her eyes. She moans thickly as I press in, pushing back as my finger penetrates her.

I take my time opening her up, preparing her for me. When she’s ready, I line my cock up with her ass, watching the spit-covered head nudge against her. “Ready?”

“Please,” she begs. “I’m so ready.”

I thrust into her slowly, relishing her body stretching around my thick cock. I can feel the quivers of her body, the tight ring of her ass squeezing me and not letting me go, as if there’s anywhere else I’d rather be than inside her. Body, mind, and soul.

When she pushes back again, I pound into her just like I promised, feeling her orgasm rising quickly. “Come for me, Red. I need to feel you come on my cock.”

She’s riding the edge, a hairsbreadth away from falling but clinging on. “What do you need?” I ask, and she whimpers.

And I know. She’s ready. Fuck knows, I’m ready.

I pull her hair harder, turning her head to look at me, not letting her doubts color the moment. I need her to hear me, see me, trust my truth.

“I love you, Charlotte. With all my heart. I love you.”

She cries out to the dark night, the words releasing not only her orgasm but the restraints she’s placed on her own heart too. And as she shudders beneath me, I hear the words fall from her mouth too.

“I love you too.”

It releases me, and I claim her final secret . . . her heart. Finally mine.

It’s hours later, or maybe minutes, when I slip out of her. I turn her to her back, lying beside her and tracing the curve of her collarbone. Everything has changed tonight, here on this roof.

“Did you mean it?” she asks, but the teasing tone says she already knows the answer.

I tickle her, making her squirm and laugh. “I think I made good on my word,” I say, touching my thumb to my fingers as I tick off, “on my hand, on my tongue, and on my cock.”

She rolls her eyes, and I give her what she wants. “Yes, I meant it. I’ve felt it for a while, but didn’t want to scare you. Are you scared?”

She dips her chin, closing her eyes for a second, but she’s smiling so I don’t get too nervous until the moment stretches. My heart stops beating until she opens her eyes once again, her blues meeting mine.

“Surprisingly, I’m not. I feel bubbly, warm inside. Like bread dough is rising inside me and I’m so full of carb-y happiness I want to explode like the Pillsbury Dough Boy.”

I can’t help but laugh. She’s funny and sexy and perfect just as she is. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of love being compared to bread, but somehow, it seems fitting for you.”

Eventually, I do pick her up and carry her back downstairs to bed. I don’t put her messy panties on her, though, instead curling up behind her, both of us naked, to fall asleep.

I’m awakenedby the sound of a buzzing cell phone, and I look over to see it’s Jonathan. It’s the middle of the night, hours before Charlotte’s alarm will go off to start her morning baking.

I extract myself from Charlotte’s side and quietly head to the living room so I don’t wake her. “Hello?”

“Am I interrupting?” he asks, a chuckle in his voice. “Heard there were some fireworks over the bakery tonight.”

“Shut up, asshole,” I joke back. “I’m sure you’re not calling in the middle of the night to give me shit. What’s wrong?”

“Just an update, like you asked. We’ve got some reliable intel that Blackwell’s got local law enforcement in his pocket, all the way to the top. You got a problem, call me or state police. Got it?”

“I understand. Keep me informed.”

I hang up, sensing Charlotte behind me. “Who was that?”

“Jonathan. He just wanted to give me an update. Nothing actionable, but he knows I’m here to help keep you safe,” I promise.

Charlotte wraps her arms around me, burying her head in my chest. “Thank you. You’re one of about a half-dozen people I trust right now, so thank you for watching my back.”

I kiss her forehead, picking her up in my arms and carrying her back to bed. “I’ve got you, Charlotte. I’ll keep you safe, body and heart.”

She relaxes into my arms, falling asleep quickly with the reassurances. But as I lie awake for hours, I find my mind analyzing every angle Blackwell could be coming at her and at Thomas from. I’d been worried about the event today, enough to work with Jonathan on adding extra security, but it’d gone off without a hitch.

So if not something big like that, what’s he planning? Because a man like Blackwell is always planning something. And we need to figure out what it is before anyone else gets hurt.